Destruction of Tropical Rainforests on Sumatra Continues Relentlessly

ROBIN WOOD Pressemitteilungen

A Robin Wood activist reports from his research trip to Sumatra

After three weeks of research on Sumatra, Robin Wood's Expert on Tropical Forests Jens Wieting draws a bitter conclusion: “The two largest pulp combines in Indonesia, APP and APRIL, continue to plunder the remaining rainforest at a breathtaking speed. Despite international protests the combines still source approximately two thirds of their raw material from areas of precious biodiversity. The extent of destruction is devastating.” Robin Wood and the Indonesian environmental networks WALHI, CAPPA, and Hakiki Foundation are therefore appealing to the paper tradespeople, who are currently meeting at the trade fair PAPERWORLD in Frankfurt, to refuse pulp and paper of Indonesian origin.
“The Sumatran region of Riau is in a state of ecological emergency” reports Jens Wieting, who has just returned from there. “Settlements and streams are severely polluted and the forests are almost completely cleared. They have given way to barren land and monotonous oil palm and acacia plantations. Effectively, there is no state control which could stop the paper, palm oil and timber industries from destroying the last remains of rainforest on the island. Both the military and the police are making profit from the illegal logging business.”

APP and APRIL have the biggest hunger for wood. Credits issued by the World Bank and by private creditors as well as government export credit guarantees from Germany have enabled the two combines to build massive pulp processing plants. To use these to their full capacity the combines do not hesitate to exploit valuable native forests. There is no end in sight for this practise as figures by the Ministry of Forestry, which Robin Wood has access to, reveal: APP is planning to clear a further 160,000 ha of native forest before 2007, APRIL a further 200,000 ha before 2009. In conservation zones and forests such as the Tesso Nilo area, in which APP and APRIL have accepted a logging moratorium due to pressure by environmentalists, illegal logging continues nevertheless.

“The pulp combines have to cut back their overcapacities until they are able to supply the full amount of wood required from their own existing plantations”, Wieting demands. “No sooner will APP and APRIL take action than when they feel that their destruction of rainforests results in decreased demand.”

Indonesian environmental and human rights groups are asking for a nation-wide logging moratorium. Rully Syumanda from the environmental network WALHI in Riau urges: “The pulp and paper industries must stop immediately to cut the Indonesian rainforest and to pollute our environment. Don't buy paper from our forest!”


Contact:
Ute Bertrand,
Press Spokesperson, Ph: +49 40 380 892 22, presse@robinwood.de